.c The Associated Press
By JOHN RICE
HAVANA (AP) - Cuba granted the island's Roman Catholic prelate unprecedented air time on state television Tuesday to publicize Pope John Paul II's upcoming visit to the communist nation.
Cuban leaders said Fidel Castro's government - by allowing Cardinal Jaime Ortega to speak live to the nation late Tuesday night - was demonstrating its desire to make the pope's first visit to Cuba a success.
No Catholic cardinal has addressed the nation since shortly after the 1959 Cuban revolution, which led to the expulsion or departure of about 600 priests.
Church officials have complained about the lack of access to Cuban media to promote John Paul's Jan. 21-25 trip.
That access has been a key issue since the pope received Castro in the Vatican in 1996 and the Cuban leader extended an invitation to visit this island of 11 million people, where the media is under tight government control.
Granting Ortega air time "goes to show how both sides - the government of Cuba and the ecclesiastical hierarchy - are working hand-in-hand to ensure that the visit of the pope is what it should be for all,'' Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon told reporters.
Both government and church leaders have played down any disagreements about preparations for the trip, and the government last year authorized an unprecedented series of open-air Masses to help promote the visit.
Cuba was officially atheist from 1962 until 1992, and faithful of all religions were barred from many types of jobs or advancement.
But Cuba never broke relations with the Vatican and relations have improved markedly in recent years.
"It may have happened in the past that some misunderstandings between believers and nonbelievers occurred,'' Alarcon said. "This visit of His Holiness to Cuba I am sure will put an end to that chapter.''
He said Cubans would look back on the visit as "as the moment where the relationship between Catholics and non-Catholics attained a level of normalization and fruitful, friendly, brotherly cooperation as it was not achieved before.''
Thousands of Cuban workers have been erecting altars, grandstands and even great crosses in the four cities where John Paul will say Mass.
Castro and other leaders have made clear that it is OK for Cubans - even Communist Party members - to attend. Alarcon denied the party was actually prodding its members to turn out.
Alarcon also insisted that Cuba's communist government had no fears about inviting the pope, who is widely credited with helping topple communist rule in his native Poland during the 1980s.
The pope's purpose "is not to produce change of any sort in the countries he visits,'' Alarcon said, calling it a pastoral visit.
He said the pope's calls for human solidarity and his denunciations of injustice, inequality and "vulgar materialism'' are also goals of Cuba's socialist government.
"We are not concerned at all,'' Alarcon said. "We are among those who invited him. We are not stupid. We are not crazy. We are receiving a friend.''
AP-NY-01-13-98 1804EST